The AAF Project is currently sponsored by the Australian Government’s Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research (DIISR) until 31 December 2010. After this time the AAF Inc. will move to a self funding subscription model. In June 2009, AAF Inc. was formed as a legal entity to support the initial operations of the AAF. AAF Inc. is managed by an interim Executive Committee consisting of members from the Council of Australian University Directors of Information Technology and other stakeholders from DIISR, AeRIC, AARNet and ARCS.

The objectives of the AAF Project are to:

• Provide technical assistance to Australian universities, state government research agencies and groups that join the AAF
• Develop and implement a governance model and consistent technologies to support a trusted national authentication and authorisation regime
• Enter into cross-federation arrangements to support international collaboration
• Assist with the transition from the MAMS Testbed Federation infrastructure to the Production AAF
• Support the initial operations of the AAF until the sector can move to a self-funding subscription basis
• Upscale marketing and communications to accelerate the uptake of the AAF by both higher education institutions and the broader research organisations, including NCRIS research groups and State Government departments
• Stimulate the development, deployment and use of the AAF enabled services via a Mini-grant scheme